The Notre Dame men – who wrapped up the 2010 regular season with a 33-0 record in dual meets (24-0 vs. varsity squads) – racked up 11 wins over teams ranked in the first 2010 USFCA top-10 poll: #1 Penn State, #3 Ohio State (twice), #4 Princeton, #5 Columbia (2), #7 Harvard, #8 St. John's (2), #9 Yale and #10 Duke. The ND women (35-0; 27-0 vs. varsity teams) similarly had an impressive run of wins over top-10 teams, with 13 victories over teams currently or previously ranked among the top-10 (numbers are previous ranking, unless note): #1 Penn State, #3 Harvard, #4 Columbia (2), #5 Northwestern (2), #6 Ohio State (2), #7 Temple, #9 Princeton and #10 Yale – plus two wins over current #6 St. John's.
The Penn State men and women each dropped a spot to #2 in the poll, while the Ohio State men remained #3 and the Princeton men #4. Princeton joins ND and PSU as the only schools with both its men and women ranked in the top-5 (the Tiger women have surged from 9th to 4th in the latest rankings).
The St. John's men climbed three spots (8th to 5th) and the Harvard men bumped up a spot to 6th, with fellow Ivy League teams Pennsylvania (6th to 7th) and Columbia (5th to 8th) dropping down in the poll. Duke inched up from 10th to 9th while Air Force – led by the All-America epee due of senior Peter French and junior Daniel Trapani – has entered the top-10 in the 10th spot (previous #9 Yale dropped out of the men's poll).
In addition to Princeton, two other women's teams made noteworthy jumps in the poll – as Northwestern now sits in the #3 spot while the previously-unranked St. John's women now are slotted 6th. The Harvard women (#3 to #9) took the biggest tumble in the poll, with one-spot drops by Columbia-Barnard (now 5th), Ohio State (7th) and Temple (8th), along with the Penn women slipping from 8th to 10th and the #10 Yale women falling out of the poll.
Noteworthy results (other than the key ND wins noted above) that may have affected movement in the polls are as follows:
• Harvard men def. Ohio State and Columbia
• Duke men def. Penn State
• Air Force men def. Duke
• Ohio State women def. Harvard and Northwestern
• St. John's women def. Penn State, Harvard, Columbia and Ohio State (twice)
• Columbia women def. Penn State and Harvard
• Princeton women def. Northwestern, Ohio State and Temple
• Brandeis women def. Penn
• UC San Diego women def. Temple
Princeton's ascent into top-5 status has been led by All-Americans such as junior men's epeeist Graham Wicas ('09 NCAA runner-up), sophomore men's foilist Alex Mills and sophomore women's epeeist Susannah Scanlan. The Tigers also have received a boost from senior men's sabreist Thomas Abend and the sophomore women's foil duo of Andrea Oliva ('09 NCAA entrant) and Rocky Rothenberg, along with clutch performances from freshman newcomers Jonathan Yergler (men's epee), Eliza Stone (women's sabre) and Hannah Safford (women's epee).
The St. John's women have entered the national top-10 thanks to strong showings by senior All-Americans Dagmara Wozniak (sabre) and Tanya Novakovska (epee), while reloading its roster with several European imports – most notably foilist Evgeniya Kirpicheva (Ufa, Russia) and epeeist Sanne Gans (Karlskrona, Sweden).
2010 USFCA College Fencing Coaches Poll (poll #2; Feb. 18)
MEN (previous rank)
1. Notre Dame (2)
2. Penn State (1)
3. Ohio State (3)
4. Princeton (4)
5. St. John's (8)
6. Harvard (7)
7. Pennsylvania (6)
8. Columbia (5)
9. Duke (10)
10. Air Force (–)
Others receiving votes: NYU, Yale, North Carolina, Stanford, UC San Diego, Sacred Heart, Wayne State and Brown.
2010 USFCA College Fencing Coaches Poll (poll #2; Feb. 18)
WOMEN (previous rank)
1. Notre Dame (2)
2. Penn State (1)
3. Northwestern (5)
4. Princeton (9)
5. Columbia-Barnard (4)
6. St. John's (–)
7. Ohio State (6)
8. Temple (7)
9. Harvard (3)
10. Pennsylvania (8)
Others receiving votes: Duke, Yale, UC San Diego, North Carolina, Cornell, Brandeis, NYU, Brown and Stanford